Australians travelling overseas – and visitors arriving here – face a growing measles risk as immunity gaps across the population intersect with rising case numbers globally, according to a new study from the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance (NCIRS).
For outbound travellers, the risk is twofold. Immunity gaps are concentrated in Australians born from the late 1970s onward, a cohort that overlaps heavily with the country’s most frequent overseas travellers and young families. At the same time, measles activity is rising in several destinations popular with Australian travellers. The Pan American Health Organization has assessed public health risk across the Americas as “very high” amid a 2025–2026 resurgence, and Canada and the UK – both significant markets for Australian outbound travel – have lost their WHO-certified measles elimination status entirely.
Advisors booking clients into affected regions may want to flag vaccination status as a standard part of pre-departure conversations, alongside destination-specific health advisories. That’s particularly relevant for two groups: parents travelling with infants too young for a full vaccination schedule, and travellers aged 15-35, who account for half of Australia’s reported measles cases since 2008, according to NCIRS data.
The risk runs in reverse for inbound travel. Associate Professor Frank Beard, NCIRS associate director and the study’s senior author, said uneven immunity across Australian communities and regions raises the risk of local outbreaks when measles is introduced from overseas. With international arrivals continuing to recover and outbreaks active in multiple source markets, inbound visitors represent a plausible transmission pathway into Australian communities with lower-than-average vaccination coverage.
Beard pointed to the loss of elimination status in Canada, Spain and the UK as a reminder that Australia’s own status “isn’t guaranteed — it has to be actively maintained”.
For the trade, the practical takeaway is straightforward: encourage clients, particularly those in higher-risk cohorts, to confirm their vaccination status with a GP well ahead of departure, alongside existing pre-trip health and travel insurance advice.
The numbers behind the warning
The study, published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, found almost 1.7 million Australians, or 6.7% of the population, lacked sufficient immunity against measles in 2019. Overall measles immunity sat at 93.3%, within the World Health Organization’s 93–95% target range for herd protection, but at the lower end of it.
Lead author Zoë Croker, an NCIRS epidemiologist, said Australia remains a measles elimination success story but is “closer to the minimum level of population protection needed to prevent outbreaks than many people might expect.”
National measles notifications have risen sharply on the back of imported cases, from single figures in recent years to 181 in 2025 and 113 so far in 2026. Australian guidelines recommend measles vaccination for anyone born during or since 1966 without documented evidence of two vaccine doses or existing immunity.
